As always, a good puzzle from Hectence. However, it proved tricky and did appear for a while as the Guardian Cryptic on the paper’s website one day last week. The Grauniad moves in mysterious ways.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letters removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Song comes from sporting equipment commercial
BALLAD
A straightforward charade to get us going: BALL plus AD.
4 Quit an organisation that’s old fashioned
QUAINT
(QUIT AN)*
9 Shoot artistic piece, taking exhibit to November event
FIREWORK DISPLAY
A charade of FIRE, WORK and DISPLAY gives you the answer.
10 Jump around with Tom securing victory and gold!
CAVORT
An insertion of V and OR for ‘gold’ in CAT, as in tom cat.
11 Loves to be in Italy and left with the essence of Mediterranean cooking
OLIVE OIL
The answer was pretty obvious once you had all the crossers, but I hope that I have parsed it correctly: LIVE for ‘to be’ in O and O for ‘loves’ followed by I for ‘Italy’ and L.
12 Next to a dinner jacket, excellent new shirt
ADJACENT
A charade of A and DJ, ACE and N and T for ‘T-shirt’.
14 Generally, not all abused power
ENERGY
Hectence is asking you to take ‘all’ out of ‘generally’ and make an anagram. (GENER[ALL]Y)*
15 Award for top town centre
BESTOW
A charade of BEST and the middle letters of tOWn.
18 Prepare care tips to run through
PRACTISE
(CARE TIPS)*
21 Lecture son about taking vintage gin to get drunk
SCOLDING
A rather complicated (for a Quiptic) charade: S for ‘son’, C for circa or ‘about’ OLD and (GIN)* The anagrind is ‘to get drunk’. Nice surface.
22 Happy pill for Mr Efron?
PROZAC
A charade of PRO and ZAC, referencing the American actor. An extended definition.
24 All my petty cash I laid out thoughtfully
SYMPATHETICALLY
(ALL MY PETTY CASH I)* That’s a clever clue.
25 Decorative accessory for cheerless atrium partially backed
TASSEL
Hidden reversed in cheerLESS ATrium.
26 Go to nurse with a temperature
ATTEND
A and T followed by TEND.
Down
1 Robber‘s gear concealed in belt
BRIGAND
An insertion of RIG for ‘gear’ in BAND for ‘belt’.
2 Be prone to deceive
LIE TO
A charade of LIE and TO. Another smooth surface reading.
3 Perhaps porter’s to carry mail to missionary
APOSTLE
An insertion of POST in ALE.
5 Make use of icing initially in baked tuiles
UTILISE
An insertion of I in (TUILES)*
6 Apply a bit of simple mentoring
IMPLEMENT
Nicely hidden in sIMPLE MENToring.
7 This kind of business requires grit and work
TRADING
(GRIT AND)* with ‘work’ as the anagrind.
8 Make last English king (George VI) old hat
EKE OUT
Well, I guess that newer solvers (who are supposed to be the Quiptic audience) have to see some tougher clues sometimes. Took me a good while to sort this out, but it’s E followed by K followed by E for the sixth letter of ‘George’ and OUT for ‘old hat’.
13 Reportedly against bounds for large animals
ANTELOPES
A homophone of ANTI followed by LOPES.
16 Awful pity CERN has no one to encode data
ENCRYPT
(P[I]TY CERN)*
17 Signal when detailed cast list is included
WHISTLE
An insertion of (CAST)* in WHE[N]. The anagrind is ‘list’ and the removal indicator is ‘de-tailed’, like in Three Blind Mice
An insertion of (LIST)* in WHE[N]. The anagrind is ‘cast’ and the removal indicator is ‘de-tailed’, like in Three Blind Mice. Thanks to Shirl for the correction.
18 Secured horse between exercise and regular feeds
PEGGED
An insertion of GG for an indication of a child’s word for a ‘horse’ between PE and ED for the even letters of ‘feeds’.
19 Install program into mobile
APPOINT
A charade of APP and (INTO)*
20 Trapped lion, initially caught, growled aggressively
SNARLED
An insertion of L for the first letter of ‘lion’ in SNARED
23 Make a speech about sailor in Old English
ORATE
A reversal of TAR in OE.
Many thanks to Hectence for this morning’s Quiptic (or was it meant to be a Cryptic?)
Thanks Hecyence and Pierre
A pretty good puzzle, Quiptic or otherwise. Favourites were QUAINT, ADJACENT, BESTOW, APOSTLE and the lovely “hidden” of IMPLEMENT (so well hidden it was my LOI).
I was hoping to find out what happened last week – when the puzzle was listed under a date in 1933, I think – but there isn’t any explanation so far on the Grauniad site.
Thanks both. Pretty good Quiptic.
Um, Pierre, 17d doesn’t contain an anagram of CAST. I think it is WHE (detailed WHEN) with anagram (cast) of LIST included.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
This kind of puzzle was a perfect Quiptic for me, just right for my level, still challenging, but I was able to muddle through without cheating. Quite a lot of back-parsing, having decided on the likely answer, and de-tailing was a cunning little misdirect that I’d forgotten. EKE OUT in fact came pretty easily to me, as a “beginner”.
That said, I had to decipher the elements of BALLAD, and then type them in, and then read it aloud, before the penny dropped! Brain still a bit slow on a Monday.
Thanks Hectence and Pierre.
I think I did this last week, but I couldn’t remember much!
Tricky in parts for a Quiptic, but enjoyable.
I liked BESTOW.
muffin @1, quoting from the Guardian site of 4 days ago
letterms commented “Selecting the oldest puzzle listed in the archives, No 591 from 15 May 1932, leads one to a Moley from 14 March, 2011.”
plumbwizard pointed out “The calendars for 1933 and 2017 are the same.”
Zeotrope concluded “Numbering and history suggests this was a Quiptic. It appears the date was taken from the correspondingly numbered Cryptic”
Philip McMahon of the Guardian staff replied to Zeotrope
“Yep, that’s exactly what’s happened! This crossword will be published again on Monday with the correct date as a Quiptic.”
(Some people thought Monday 27 February 1933 referred to the Reichstag Fire, FIREWORK DISPLAY. I thought someone had posted the puzzle on purpose, it seemed to come up an hour after the Queen had given assent to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill at 11am. The Reichstag Fire is a powerful political metaphor used whenever citizens and/or politicians feel threatened by executive overreach.
jennyk was very dubious and sensibly commented “Re. Quiptic 905, I suspect that particular answer is just coincidence. Because dates and times are not usually stored in a computer in a form we would recognise as a date, sometimes a single-digit error can produce a ridiculous date very different to the intended one…)
Thanks to Hectence and Pierre.
Needed Pierre’s help to parse EKE OUT, which I just biffed and pressed on. Thought that one a little difficult for a Quiptic and also WHISTLE. But an enjoyable romp nonetheless, favourites were ADJACENT and APPOINT.
Thanks cookie
Thank you Hectence and Pierre.
I left solving the puzzle until today, a good Quiptic. With the wrong date on its first publication, FIREWORK DISPLAY and the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament suggested the Reichstag Fire to me, and I had assumed to someone else on the Guardian staff – I still wonder a little…
Thanks, Shirl, for pointing out my mistake. Was rushing a bit to get the blog out this morning. Corrected now.
I wonder if “about” should have an underline in 23
No, it shouldn’t. Apologies.
I failed to solve 17d, 15a, 8d and could not parse 12a.
Thanks Pierre and Hectence.